There is a vacant lot adjoining my lot, and at the far end we are just now seeing signs of moles/gophers. They are spreading into the lot, and I want to stop them before they hit my lot. Any suggestions? I'd like to drive them off, but I'll kill them if I have to - no holds barred, I won't have them terrorizing my garden.
My guess on a first defence would be dig down, along the property line, and have a barrier that extended maybe two or three feet underground. Some gauge chicken wire, to block them when they are tunnelling.
won't work - they have no problem moving above ground if necessary. Might as well start thinking of a name for your new invisible pet.
Carl
Yea I would name them but if you want to get rid of them you have to get rid of what they eat
so try a grub remover
but really I would name them you are lucky to have animals around
we have rabbits some people dont like them but this is their home too so putting some wire around the few plants they like to eat is not much trouble
when the benifit is I can look out in the yard and see a rabbit
There are good reasons to treat for grubs, but a mole's diet is 70% earthworms. So, a well maintained property will have plenty of those and be very inviting to a mole. Try searching this newsgroup for mole info. They are extremely difficult to remove/kill.
Carl
I recommend complete surrender before they attack. Terms could include: lawn aeration and pest removal by the moles in exchange for a few lawn scalps by the power mower. Seriously, we have a major mole population here in this part of Kentucky. We fought them valiantly for years, traps, sprays, poison baits, gas bombs etc. etc. Bottom line,, we lost. Moles cannot be controlled in isolation. You would need to gain support and cooperation from all your immediate neighbors as moles travel quite well overland. Limiting food they find attractive also eliminates many beneficial friends as well. So around here we just stumble around the yard until June when the moles get dormant and/or go deep underground in the summer heat. A few trips with the riding mower and the yard starts levelling up again. My neighbors also roll their yards but I have not found that to be necessary. My lawn is "Darwinian" in nature but that is another story. Good luck.
The common eastern mole eats a much, much higher percentage of grubs than worms. The common western moles eat more worms than grubs. They all also eat young slugs in spring & autumn.
Most moles want a VARIED diet and won't waste too much time tunneling about in a lawn without a significant percentage of grubs. Unless they have no choice for more varied feeding ground in unclaimed territories (they're highly territorial & if they reach a certain density there'll be a mole in just about every inhabitable location, unable to move to better territory without getting beat up by another mole).
Moles can be very garden-friendly but I might have trouble tolerating a Townsends, one mole can pile up twenty five or a hundred hills, it could get really annoying. Smaller moles aren't quite that industrious. There's usually only one at a time in any given area unless a female raising a couple young.
Gophers are a whole nother show. They can like rabbits really eat up a garden. But I'd be inclined to plant defensively & then give them feeding stations away from anything sensitive, & enjoy watching them.
I've encouraged our squirrels for years so that by now they're very bold. They're territorial too & usually there are only one or two in a given area. But during the cold, cold, record cold winter there were five or six visiting regularly, & they started digging bulbs. Annoying, but they'd have to be a great deal more troublesome than that before I wouldn't like them any more.
-paggers
....I don't have problems with rabbits, the occaisonal raccon or 'possum. They don't do much dammage, and they don't eat much. Even the skunks aren't a problem, they leave my dog alone and don't spray near us. It's just that when they walk past the bedroom window at night...peeeyhyooooo!!! The odor of a skunk at close range is incredible. My neighbor had some move into the crawlspace of his house, and he had to move out for two weeks until they got rid of them and replaced the wood that got sprayed...but I digress...
I just don't want my garden turned into a DMZ, and around here the moles/gophers/whatever make a huge mess of things. They really ruin the landscape when they move in.
Whatever you do, don't do this...
There is a product called Mole Med. It contains castor oil and you can probably read more about it here:
dug holes and added battery power vibrators. I've placed milky spore disease on my small lawn. I've stepped on their runs and installed a spike trap. Twice killed one. I've got mole plants spurge. (SP?) . Still they come.
I buy gutter guard and chicken wire to make physical barriers. I've also placed tulips in wires boxes. Next step is broken glass as they are bleeders. (Do not like the idea as it would most likely get me.)
Still end up pressing soil down about young trees. Makes me more paranoid but slow death to so many young plants gets my attention. I live in the woods and do not recommend planting any thing in a straight line. (Bulbs)
Bill who is looking at garden catalogs still ;)).
It's funny how the people who want to kill things because of their attachment to their turf and plants are also the ones with the most problems with what you perceive to be pests. Moles are insectivores and I don't think they eat bulbs. I could be wrong.
fuel. I wonder if I were to mix some with water and an emulsifier(lecithin?) and spray it around if it would help?
It's now what they eat that bugs me - it's the devestation they do to the landscape and garden :(. That is why I tolerate racoons and skunks and possums and neighborhood kids. Pests, yes, but they don't eat much, and don't do much damage. But things that dig up the landscape is another problem entirely.
I believe the mixture would be 60% castor oil with 30% water and 10% surfactant (baby shampoo, Dr. Bonners peppermint soap). Try it out. You never know what will work for you.
We have an armadillo living either on or near our property. He/she comes and noses around and messes up the mulch. Call me crazy, and the climate of this newsgroup will do just that, but I love that these critters have a place to go. When I bought this house there were huge fields of native grasses and trees and these animals have all been forced off when the bulldozer shows up.
So, I am willing to tollerate damge to plants. If I have something out there growing for me to eat and a bird gets it, I am so happy for that bird, or skunk or raccoon or whatever. I love the snakes who lay their eggs on my property, and the myriad lizards which lay their eggs also.
I go so far as to be very careful when I cut down the ornamental grasses and clean them up. The anoles like to hunker down in the crown for winter. I'm always mindful that because I am human I do not have the right to murder animals who may tear up a silly plant or ten.
HOWEVER, as I do have critters, they are welcome, and I rarely, if ever, have problems with them.
I think the moles are taking a bad rap. But their tunnels provide VOLES easy access to plant roots. My plants are not silly and have been nurtured for decades. Sad to find a dogwood listing and being able to pull it up to find a girdled spear point.
I'm never mindful but I am aware that the Zen Buddhist in 1940 Japan went along with the program. Also read in the Dali Lama's biography that he some times shoots aggressive birds at his feeder. Must be the human condition. So no Moles = No Voles or maybe less Voles.
Bill
Okay, Bill. Please give me the author and name of this book with the page where it says His Holiness killed anything, ever.
You're a weird if you think the Dalai Lama has ever HELD a weapon, let alone shoot one at any living thing.
Provide the title of the book. Is it Kundun? Author?
I think the info is in here. I can't find the actual book as it around here somewhere. I've been reading for ~50 years weird stuff. Can't help you with the page number.
Bottom line. Buddhist are not special.
Bill
I had moles and started a trap war. You need to learn how to set the trap and it works. I got red of them and when a new one shows up I have it within a day. The Vector spear trap works fine if you learn how to use it.
From Mel & Donnie in Bluebird Valley
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